There’s a lot of good stuff in this book, but I had to skim it to get through it. It’s almost comical how upbeat this book is when read during this current economic recession. It was published around the end of the last stock bubble when everybody was going to be rich. The author travels around and looks at our relationship with money. It’s interesting but out-of-date.

I was pretty jazzed to read about the dissolution of the USSR and the rise of Yeltsin, honestly. But maybe I’m not actually a Russian history buff. This is the second Russian history book I’ve bailed on in my life … or maybe the fifth.

This was a recommendation from a buddy, and I appreciate the pick, but I guess I’m more interested in books about speculative investing than books about boring old smart investing. I’m going to try and get through this one again soon, but it’s a bear. It’s significantly less exciting than you’d think. The author fails to blame politicians for anything, and he seems to accept the fate of boom and bust markets — he even explains why they happen.

I’m stalled in this one. After a really strong opening, it’s just a slog now that recalls the lives of various British travel writers. The beginning was really, really interesting. Not so much anymore.

At some point, and perhaps I’ve reached it, one knows as much as one is capable of knowing about a single cathedral. The beginning of the book was an amazing portrait of Paris as a growing medieval city. Temko even explains Paris’s growth with parallels to Chicago’s growth. But now I’m stuck on the iconography of the windows. Turns out, I’m not super interested in that level of detail.

As a closet wannabe rock star, I love the premise of this book — a neurological look at music — but I want a bit more. I want to know the underlying attributes of popular songs, I don’t want just example after example of one-off compositional tricks that delight listeners. Hopefully it’ll wrap up with grander ideas, but I’m stuck in the middle and the minutia.

Hello! This is Lisa with the one book I’m stuck on. I tend to be a little more picky in my book selection, but I couldn’t resist this one about the spectacular way the economy fell apart in the 80s. It’s interesting to read about the activities that spawned the current anti-money laundering, auditing, and fraud regulations, and it’s horrifying to see how history has once again repeated itself in the most recent economic crash. But reading this book makes me just want to know what’s happening NOW – what dirty ways have people found to evade the latest regulations, what’s next. And it’s quite depressing too…we’ll really never learn.

As always, there's hope.

But there’s hope. I just read One For The Roadby Tony Horwitz, a hilarious account of the author’s beer-fueled adventures hitchhiking through Australia. A great book, but it makes you really want to drink a beer while reading it. Before that, I read At Home by Bill Bryson. It was very, very interesting as most of Bryson’s books are. This morning, I finished Around the World Single-Handed, an account of a nearly 4-year circumnavigation in the 1920s. I love sailing books.

In my sights is a book Lisa just grabbed by Edward Abbey, Abbey’s Road. I just have to sneak it away from Lisa.

As for the others, I’m going to abandon some as soon as I find some fresh meat. Got any other recommendations?

Side note: If you follow the link and buy a copy, Amazon kicks us back some gas money. Everybody wins.

Read Our Book:

Read about Paul fighting off a charging bear with a Fat Tire beer can (kinda made up). And this: Lisa meeting a talking piece of poo in the middle of the desert (maybe that was dehydration). And we realize that the meaning of life is wrapped up in a motel waffle (this is probably true).